Cogito Ergo Non Serviam
Trump Sends National Guard, Marines to LA
Friday, ICE tried rounding up day laborers in a Home Depot parking lot in LA. It did not go well, trying to arrest people without probable cause. The local community staged a protest, and ICE had to back down. The LA Police Department said it had everything handled. Mr. Trump decided he needed to make matters worse, so he federalized the California National Guard. He has deployed 4,000 of them to the streets of the city, and he ordered 700 Marines to back them up. It is a needless escalation that is profoundly dangerous.
This journal does not agree with those who think this is all a dress rehearsal for taking over the entire country. Nor is it part of some grand scheme to remove undocumented aliens from the US. It is a lizard-brained move by Mr. Trump who merely got made at California years ago, and he has a chance to prove how tough he is, by sending others to fight if it comes to it. Chaos, not planning, is what is happening here, and chaos can be more destructive.
The State of California has sued the Trump administration for the deployment of these troops without consulting with the governor as per law. These lawsuits are necessary, but they will not affect the fact that there are troops guarding a few federal buildings in LA. The US legal system is slow, and delay plays to the administration's desires.
Using the National Guard to back up the LAPD is a power grab by the White House. Mayor Karen Bass is in charge of the LAPD, and the president can give it no legal orders. Governor Gavin Newsome is in charge of the National Guard until it is federalized, and Mr. Trump hated that, too. His federalization is almost certainly illegal, but until the Supreme Court tells him so, the situation on the ground will persist.
Putting the Guard and the Marines on the streets is a recipe for violence. The 4,000 Guardsmen are outnumbered, and that always makes people nervous. What one does not want is nervous Guardsmen. That is how 4 kids got killed at Kent State and 2 at Jackson State all those years ago. Week-end warriors are not trained police.
In the case of the Marines, it is even worse. They drilled with riot shields and batons yesterday, and that was the first time they every held those weapons. Marines are assault troops; they are untrained in crowd control. They are young, and probably a little scared (at least the smart ones are). If things do not cool down soon, it is safe to predict a lethal discharge of a weapon by someone. That will be horrible no matter who does the shooting and who does the bleeding. These will be Americans shooting each other over politics.
Immigration is Mr. Trump's big stick. He believes if the conversation is about that, it is not about the disastrous tariffs or Elon Musk or the stupid big ugly bill. Whether Americans can keep more than one idea in their heads at once is to be seen. If, however, someone gets killed, it will be Mr. Trump who is to blame.
All of this is being done because ICE has a 3,000 arrest per day quota as imposed by Stephen Miller, deputy White House chief of staff. That is what is needed to get to 1 million a year. At that rate, it will take about 12 years to remove those who entered without proper papers. It is unrealistic. It is too expensive in terms of taxpayer dollars and in economic damage removing workers will create. It is theatre to entertain the MAGA base. The US political system is no longer a representative democracy. It is just a pro-wrestling style spectacle, which will do immense harm to what remains of the Republic.
© Copyright 2025 by The Kensington Review, Jeff Myhre, PhD, Editor. No part of this publication may be reproduced without written consent. Produced using Ubuntu Linux.
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